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AME Info, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, telecommunications briefs

Dec 03, 2012 (AME Info - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
SAUDI REGULATOR APPROVES MOBILY'S BONUS SHARE: Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) has said Saudi Arabia's stock market regulator has approved a 10 percent bonus share, Reuters has reported. The operator, an affiliate of the UAE's Etisalat, will give shareholders one new bonus share for every 10 held. This will raise the number of shares issued to 770 million from 700 million. Each share has a nominal value of SR10, meaning Mobily's capital will increase to SR7.7bn ($2.05bn) from the current SR7bn.

ZAIN APPOINTS FORMER WATANIYA CHIEF AS CEO: Kuwait's Zain has named Scott Gegenheimer as group chief executive, six months after he quit as CEO of rival telecoms operator Wataniya, Reuters has reported. Gegenheimer will start his new role immediately, Zain said, replacing Nabeel bin Salama, who in October announced he would step down as group CEO at the end of his contract in February 2013. He joined Qtel's subsidiary Wataniya in 2002, became CEO in 2008 and resigned from the company in June this year.

APPLE ENABLES LTE ACCESS ONLY AFTER TESTING OPERATORS' NETWORKS: Swiss telecoms operator Swisscom has said Apple Inc. is not allowing mobile operators to offer the iPhone 5 as an LTE device unless they pass the Californian vendor's own independent tests for LTE network performance, Telecoms.com has reported. "Apple only enables 4G access after testing their device on an operator's live network," a Swisscom spokesman said. Bengt Nordstrom, founder and CEO at industry consultancy NorthStream said this proved "who is running the industry." Apple have put themselves in the driving seat; it's really changing the game, he added.